The new United Nation Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, Karima Bennoune, just released a new report on 'Cultural Rights Defenders'.

This report aims at raising awareness about the work of cultural rights defenders - human rights defenders who defend cultural rights in accordance with international standards - and to increase the attention and assistance they receive. The report includes an overview of the diverse kinds of human rights worl that cultural rights defenders engage in, the challenges and risks they face, and the international legal framework that enables their work, and offers specific recommendations as to how to better support and protect them.

The report will be presented to the Council on next Tuesday, 3 March, tentatively at 16:00. Live-streaming available here: http://webtv.un.org/live/

More info here.

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Prior to this report, the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights had already published:

• Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
  http://www.agenda21culture.net/news/new-report-un-special-rapporteur-cultural-rights
• Cultural rights and public spaces.
  http://www.agenda21culture.net/news/cultural-rights-and-public-space
• The Impact of Fundamentalism and Extremism on the Cultural  Rights of Women: Time to Take a Stand.
  Report: http://www.agenda21culture.net/news/report-karima-bennoune-now-available
  Event: http://www.agenda21culture.net/news/side-event-impact-fundamentalism-and-extremism-cultural-rights-women

The last issue of the Periférica magazine addresses local cultural policies with a series of specific articles, interviews and dossiers that embed the following:

• local cultural policies
• public cultural management and governance
• cultural rights
• creative practices at the local level
• international cooperation on culture
• culture and democracy
• women and the creative and cultural industries
• heritage and tourism
• memory and access to culture
• and many more.

It also includes a tribute to Eduard Miralles i Ventimilla, cultural manager who especially worked on and the relationship that exists between cultural associationism and political power.

More info here.

The EU strategy for international cultural relations sets out to move beyond an understanding of cultural diplomacy as soft power and towards a more inclusive and reciprocal approach built around “a new spirit of dialogue, mutual listening and learning, joint capacity-building and global solidarity”. To be fully effective, this strategy needs to involve all levels of governance, in particular cities.

The policy paper 'Towards a multi-level strategy for EU external cultural relations : bringing cities on board' aims to demonstrate the potential of European cities for achieving the objectives of the EU strategy for international cultural relations by proposing a revised multilevel approach. European cities play a major role in the development of cultural ties across borders and they have increasingly established themselves as autonomous international cultural policy actors. Along with the rise of a multi-actor and multilevel diplomatic arena, cities and other sub-national governments have acquired an increasingly important role. The exponential rise in transnational city networks since the early 2000s demonstrates how cities have stepped up to form transnational alliances around an increasingly broader set of issues that were traditionally the domain of nation-states. Many of these networks promote cities as international cultural policy actors and provide effective structures for knowledge sharing and peer-learning on culture-led urban and socioeconomic development, the use of culture to enhance local heritage, further intercultural dialogue and improve citizens’ well-being.

Read more here.

The publication Security, Creativity, Tolerance and their Co-existence: The New European Agenda on Freedom of Artistic Expression, promoted by Freemuse outlines how European governments carry the legal responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil obligations to artistic freedom. The report further draws attention to the alarming trend of governments targeting artists under the existing laws such as anti-terrorism legislation, or with the use of laws prohibiting offending religion such as hurting “religious feelings” and art that is considered to be “blasphemous” or “obscene”.

The report is an analysis of the human right to freedom of artistic expression based on monitoring of legal and policy development and individual cases of violations of artistic freedom in Europe over the past two years (January 2018 to October 2019).

The ROCK regulatory framework has been envisaged as an assemblage of key policy recommendations  empowering Cultural Heritage as a driver for sustainable and smart growth, with a special reference to public procurement. Its development is an attempt to shape better implementation frameworks, targeting decision and policy makers from all administrative levels. The ROCK deliverable “Regulatory Framework, ROCKProcurement And Policy Recommendations”, coordinated by the expert Sylvia Amann is now published.

The World Urban Forum is an important milestone for cities and local governmemnts. It is a high-level forum convened by UN-Habitat. Every two years it connects the urban and development agenda and it offers an opportunity to meet member states and other partners. The upcoming Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) theme is "Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation".

The UCLG Culture Committee will participate in several sessions of the World Urban Forum:

The European Cultural Foundation, Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture, Krytyka Polityczna and ZEMO98 invite you to apply for participation in Culture Lab Europe, which will take place from 16-18 April 2020 In Rijeka, Croatia. The call is looking for cultural activists and mediators who are engaged in initiatives that create spaces for solidarity and public debate, and who are keen on European collaboration.

All across Europe, citizens (including those who are not formally recognised as such) are realising they are not alone and are organising their communities. They are creating new online and offline spaces where working together and generating solidarity is what matters. In these spaces culture functions as a language to describe reality, to express feelings and opinions. Culture works to strengthen social ties and helps to imagine alternative ways of living and engaging with others in understanding, trust and peace. Connecting these spaces will provide a crucial infrastructure for a cultural movement that can reclaim European democracy.

Culture Lab Europe has been set up as a live platform to strengthen this movement. Cultural activists and mediators will establish connections with colleagues from across Europe and work on common initiatives that can strengthen European Pulic Space. Culture Lab Europe provides a safe and inspirational working environment based on principles of free and open culture.

You can find all information on the application procedure here: https://www.culturalfoundation.eu/culture-lab-europe

Deadline for application is 31st of january 2020, 12:00 CET.

Culture at Work Africa consortium has launched a contest to select a song that addresses the themes of intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity.

The Contest is open to songwriters/performers (minimum age 18 years) from the following countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

People interested must comply with the contest guidelines and can submit their songs along with the participation form.

Deadline for submission: February 3, 2020 at 12:00 (GMT)

Culture at Work Africa is co-funded by the European Union and is implemented by a consortium led by Interarts.

• Culture at Work Africa: Songwriting contest guidelines

The CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) has recently published a report entitled "Advancing urban rights. Equality and diversity in the city", coordinated by Eva Garcia-Chueca, investigadora senior y coordinadora científica del programa ciudades globales, CIDOB, y Lorenzo Vidal , investigador, y gestor de proyectos, CIDOB (Eds.), and including some contribution of Jordi Baltá Portolès, expert on culture and sustainable cities of the Committee on Culture of UCLG.

The monograph engages with issues, related to the Right to the City, urban and human right, the promotion of diversity, and guaranteeing equality for all as responsibilities of cities and local governments. It focuses, in particular, on identifying and analysing redistribution and recognition policies, especially at local level, institutional change and social production of the city in an increasingly urban world.

Download the report and/or get more information here.